The Elephant God eBook

CHAPTER XIX

TEMPEST

The storm had burst on India. In the Khyber Pass
there was fiercer fighting than even that blood-stained
defile had ever seen. The flames kindled by fanaticism
and lust of plunder blazed up along the North-west
Frontier and burned fiercest around Peshawar, where
the Pathan tribes gathered thickest. No news
came from the interior of Bhutan.

So far, however, the interior of the land was comparatively
tranquil. Sporadic outbreaks in the Bombay Presidency
and the Punjaub had been crushed promptly. The
great plan of a wide-spread concerted rising throughout
the peninsula had come to naught, thanks to the papers
that Dermot had found in the man-eater’s den.
He had carried them straight to Simla himself, for
closer examination had confirmed his first impression
and shown him that they were far too important to be
confided to any one else.

The information in them proved to be of the utmost
value, for they disclosed the complete plans of the
conspirators and told the very dates arranged for
the advance of the Afghan army and the attacks of the
Pathans, which were to take place simultaneously with
the general rising in India. This latter the
military authorities were enabled to deal with so
effectively that it came to nothing.

Incidentally the papers conclusively proved the treason
of the Rajah and the Dewan of Lalpuri, and
that the Palace was one of the most important centres
of the conspiracy. To Dermot’s amazement
no action was taken against the two arch-plotters,
owing to the incredible timidity of the chief civil
authorities in India and their susceptibility to political
influences in England. For Lalpuri and its rulers
had been taken under the very particular protection
of the Socialist Party; and the Government of India
feared to touch the traitors. The excuse given
for this leniency was that any attempt to punish them
might be the signal for the long delayed rising in
Lalpuri and Eastern Bengal generally.

A few days after Dermot’s return from Simla
orders came to him from the Adjutant General to hand
over the command of the detachment to Parker, as he
himself had been appointed extra departmental Political
Officer of the Bhutan Border, with headquarters at
Ranga Duar. This released him from the responsibilities
of his military duties and left him free to devote
himself to watching the frontier. He was able
to keep in communication with Parker by means of signal
stations established on high peaks near the Fort,
visible from many points in the mountains and the forest;
for he carried a signalling outfit always with him.